Oil on tracK?

That would seem to be an unusual situation for an August Seat of Learning...

Here comes the sun

Well - I've just waved goodbye to the Vauxhall. My sales pitch started well when the prospective buyer checked the oil level and the whole dipstick tube came off in his hand. Then he started trying to make me feel guilty for the fact he'd come from Bedford to look at it and it was a bit shit. Hand on heart, it's in the column in Parker's Used Car Prices marked "poor" and I got a reasonable return for it on that basis. It shames me that I let it get into a bad way. Easy to blame someone else - I spent a few years with someone who seemed to feel guilty at being in a financial position to afford nice things, and who assuaged that guilt by letting the nice things go rusty, or get broken, or lost, or have some of their parts disappear. And who felt it very important that I adopted the same mindset. Which is, of course, utter bollocks. If we are lucky enough to have quality kit, then the best way to repay the universe is to look after that kit. And that's nothing to be ashamed of. This reminder has come too late for the Vauxhall, and in all honesty probably too late for Ruby too. The car doesn't have many happy memories and I wish it well in its new life. And I thank it for being a sacrificial lamb. With great vehicles comes great responsibility and I will try and do better by the 2CV.

Easter Egg run

Polar Bear Sue has invited me on the local Easter Egg run...I have a bunny tail and ears for my lid :)

Every Day is a Good Day

I've been camping on the south coast with Biker Paul...him on the Rocker's Revenge (Kawasaki W650), me on Ruby as her final fling before I have to sell her to pay the taxman. We looked like a magazine feature on Biking Through The Ages. Or possibly like a mix and match TV chef tribute act - The Not Very Hairy Biker and One Not Very Fat Lady.

Now, the problem I face is that it was a fantastic weekend of sun, and ice cream, and sitting on the beach watching the moon on the waves and listening to the breakers roll in, and drinking good beer and having a laugh with some locals in the pub who tried to teach me to juggle - oand what's interesting about that?! I've built a blog on misfortune and sarcasm, and here I am skipping through the metaphorical internet grinning like a loon and saying Hello Flowers, Hello Trees.

It also helps that I get to ride to work every day through some of the best of an English spring....at the moment when I leave the house the light is that fabulous slightly luminous morning pearl that just makes me want to stick my passport in my pocket and ride for ever. When I am an old woman that's what I'm going to do, but for now, for once, Every Day is a Good Day.

PS - in case you are wondering, the picture is of the inside of one of this year's RBR Landmarks, thus neatly circumventing the ban on publication before 31 Oct.

"Jesus, at least I tried"

The arrival of Hortense the very shiny 2CV has prompted a round of washing of the bikes - can't have them feeling shown up! And to make life even easier, this morning I discovered a tap hiding behind the garage door so, while yesterday was a careful round of the Africa Twin with a magic fly-removing cloth, today I got to spray Ruby liberally with something pink and foamy and hose her down afterwards. Blimey, she scrubs up well.

But that wasn't what I came here to talk about.

While I was polishing flies off the Africa Twin, I had the radio on. From 7 till 8 Radio 2 do niche music shows - Monday is the blues, and Tuesday is folk. And I really liked the words to this - Ramblin Rover. So I offer them here for your delight. It's probably a really famous song but I've never heard it before. I haven't roamed through all the nations yet, but I've roamed through most of Britain and my good friends are all treasure. Here's to you!

"I've roamed through all the nations
Taken delight in all creation,
And I've tried a wee sensation
Where the company, did prove kind.
And when parting was no pleasure,
I've drunk another measure
To the good friends that were treasure
For they always are in our minds.

If you're bent with arth-i-ritis,
Your bowels have got colitis,
You're gallopin' with bollockitis
And you're thinking it's time you died,
If you've been a man of action,
Though you're lying there in traction,
You will get some satisfaction
Thinking, "Jesus, at least I tried."

What I did on my holidays...

This may not look like the most exciting screenshot you've ever seen - but it means that the album which I've been project-managing on behalf of Steve Lockwood has been successfully registered with Gracenote and so the wise and sensible people who buy it can upload it into their preferred listening software of choice and the titles will appear, as if by magic. Which I think is rather cool.

Next job - getting the album approved for the iTunes store...

MOT time...

Anxious parent sitting here waiting for the result...

This is what Spring looks like

I am getting old and I seem to feel the changing of the seasons more keenly than I used to, presumably on the grounds that I have an ever-decreasing number of them left. Though it's equally possible that the reason I am particularly relieved at the arrival of spring this year because it means my gas bill will go down.

There's a town in the USA where spring is marked by the arrival of between 10 000 and 25 000 tundra swans, stopping for a rest on their spring migration. For me spring is marked by the arrival of Lupercalian Goat Sacrifice Day, closely followed by the RBR landmark list, the A.R.S.E, the paperwork for the Thundersprint, and then by getting up at 6.00am and making like an air hostess in my fetching orange Hopp Rider Training vest. Or Michael Palin in The Life of Brian. "Confident on the right....less confident on the left....don't know? How about the middle..oh, you were just kidding. Yes, brick-slow is also good on the left."

Spring at Cadwell Park is lovely. The sunlight catches in the trees and the bunny rabbits frolic on the meadows. Evolution teaches them how not to get smacked by errant Porsches, while modern EU noise regulations mean that the exhaust notes of the LRSP partipipants barey disturbs them. Apart from the Viper can on the VFR ;)

Here's a few pics.